2nd monitor not showing up...

[Armistice]

Recalling that I disassembled my DAW because I'm selling the apartment...

So I'm reassembling just to check everything works before I pack it up for shipping, and the second monitor doesn't show up in Win 7. It has power - can't seem to get a signal to it.

There's only one way to hook these up from the PC. 2nd monitor has ONLY DVI and Display Port and I'm using Display Port. 1st monitor has DVI and VGA and HDMI and I'm using DVI. I've never used VGA in this set up. It's the way it worked before, no doubt.

So I see a single (1st) monitor in Display in Control Panel and the other (2nd) one can't be detected.

If I unplug the functioning DVI cable from 1st monitor and connect to 2nd monitor... with the DAW PC on and operational - nothing. Blank 2nd screen.

If I then connect 1st monitor via VGA, nothing on either screen. (I changed the source to VGA). So therefore the primary signal is going out the DVI port. Reboot. Still nothing.

This 2nd monitor is the only part of the DAW that hasn't actually moved - no way has it just stopped working. I have no other devices with either DVI or Display Port outputs to check it with.

Thoughts on further troubleshooting?

[JD01]

I'm a bit confused about your setup. Don't you hook your monitors up to your interface.

[Armistice]

Screens.... (also called monitors )

[JD01]

Oh.. in that case @Tadpui is your man. I just stick an HDMI cable in the side of my laptop and it always works.

[Greg_L]

I'm a bit confused about your setup. Don't you hook your monitors up to your interface.

[Tadpui]

That's strange. When I've done multiple monitors, Windows has been good about figuring it out. All I've ever had to do was tell it the orientation of how they're arranged, and select a primary monitor.

You might go into the display properties (been a while since I've used Win7 so I can't remember what they used to call it) and see if there's any mention of the 2nd monitor. I don't think you have to do anything to "enable" the 2nd monitor, but maybe at least see if Windows is aware that it's even plugged in.

It could be something as simple as a bad cable. If your packing has unearthed any old cables from the depths of your storage bins, you could at least try swapping it out.

[Armistice]

Windows simply won't "see" it and I'm using the same cables as worked before.

And now I've tried 2 different cables, one of which I know is working because it delivers the signal successfully to Monitor 1, and still get nothing when Monitor 2 is the only monitor hooked up.

I mean the obvious conclusion is that
Monitor 2 is somehow fritzed, but that doesn't make sense either. I'll dig into the drivers perhaps.

Because it doesn't have HDMI I can't test from another machine. I'll see what adapters I have lying around. Thanks @Tadpui .

[Armistice]

Although perhaps I'm plugging it in wrong... Can't find the manual for this model...

1200px-Lace_Monitor_in_Tamborine_National_Park,_Cedar_Creek_Falls,_Queensland,_Australia.jpg

(Also called a "monitor".)

[musicturtle]

@Armistice

Does Monitor 2 have any sort of settings? Like to adjust the brightness or sharpness? If so, most of monitors will show this even when not plugged into a PC. If these functions don't work, it may indeed be the monitor.

Also, is this from a video card or the motherboard, maybe try hooking directly to the MB and see if Monitor 2 works.

[Armistice]

@Armistice

Does Monitor 2 have any sort of settings? Like to adjust the brightness or sharpness? If so, most of monitors will show this even when not plugged into a PC. If these functions don't work, it may indeed be the monitor.

Also, is this from a video card or the motherboard, maybe try hooking directly to the MB and see if Monitor 2 works.

Thanks musicturtle - it doesn't have an on screen display, and I've sent a signal I know is working, by unplugging the cable to monitor 1, which shows Windows, and plugging it into monitor 2, which shows nothing. It does have a separate video card, which Windows tells me is working... bit of a mystery - really no reason why it would just stop, whilst still having power.

As it only has two possible sources, I've hit the source button enough times to rotate through both options... weird.

[CeeBee]

Have you switched it on?

[Lt. Bob]

lol .... I thought it was an audio monitor!

stupid monitors ..... say they're coming and then just don't even show up!

[Armistice]

Yo @Tadpui

So I discovered the graphics card had a control panel and fired it up. It clearly shows the Display Port as "Not connected" even though it is.

I'm assuming if the graphics card itself wasn't working, then I'd have nothing. It can't be the cable - the 1st monitor uses DV-I and I've run that cable to monitor 2 and got nothing - and of course if I do that I won't be able to see what the graphics card control panel says...

Must be the monitor, then, even though that's completely illogical? I don't have any other cable / monitor options I can use to test things, alas.

What do you think?

Perhaps haul the monitor off to a PC repair place and see if it works for them? Running out of ideas - don't want to just buy a new monitor if it's not that and during my enforced work from home period monitor 2 has been the only monitor I've used as monitor 1 has been pretty much always attached to my work laptop on the dining table.

I have nothing else I can attach to this monitor to test as it only has DV-I and Display Port.

MonitorStatus.png

[Armistice]

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Looking on the back of the PC - wait... what's that port I haven't noticed, above the DVI port???????

It's a second DisplayPort.... plugged the cable in there - all working.

Completely obvious now when I pull the top off because THAT'S WHERE THE FUCKING ADDITIONAL VIDEO CARD IS LOCATED, sitting at 90 degrees to the motherboard with NVIDIA written on it, so the ports are, of course, on top of each other.....

I was plugging the cable onto the DisplayPort attached to the motherboard...





#sigh

Stand down.

[vomitHatSteve]

That was gonna be my question. Are you now running 1 from the video card and the other from the mobo? That's kind of an unusual setup. Usually, you need to run both from the video card.

[Armistice]

That was gonna be my question. Are you now running 1 from the video card and the other from the mobo? That's kind of an unusual setup. Usually, you need to run both from the video card.

I normally take pics of how things are hooked up specifically to stop mistakes like this - when it was set up, I got the bits on huge discount via my cousin who worked for HP at the time - and he hooked it up - I didn't even think about it. And it's stayed exactly like that ever since... until I first dismantled it a few months back thinking I was going to Queensland. I didn't end up going so I mantled it back together and it all worked and sat there for a couple of months until I pulled it all down again - now I'm bugged by whether or not I actually completely removed all the cabling the first time I did it - I have no memory of re-hooking everything back up, and it all worked.

[Armistice]

Have you switched it on?

You weren't far wrong in the end...

[Tadpui]

Glad you got it sorted out!

For a little while in a previous incarnation of my studio room, I was running one monitor off of the integrated GPU and one off of the discrete GPU and it worked just fine. It was an act of desperation because I didn't have the proper cables to run both from my discrete GPU. I was actually surprised that it worked, but Windows didn't seem to mind at all. Maybe your integrated GPU is disabled in the BIOS or something, to avoid conflicts with the two GPU cards that are installed?

Either way, glad it's working and you're back to the world of binocular vision!

[Armistice]

Glad you got it sorted out!

For a little while in a previous incarnation of my studio room, I was running one monitor off of the integrated GPU and one off of the discrete GPU and it worked just fine. It was an act of desperation because I didn't have the proper cables to run both from my discrete GPU. I was actually surprised that it worked, but Windows didn't seem to mind at all. Maybe your integrated GPU is disabled in the BIOS or something, to avoid conflicts with the two GPU cards that are installed?

Either way, glad it's working and you're back to the world of binocular vision!

Yeah, I was wondering that myself - it must be disabled. The other thing is that the DVI feed to monitor 1 was plugged directly into monitor 2 while I was trying to trouble shoot and that didn't work. It really should have. I've had monitor 1 out in the lounge room for a year and running the DAW off monitor 2 alone.

So I suspect that what I've been calling monitor 2 is actually monitor 1 in Windows (ie. make this my main display ticked...) and when I disconnected the smaller monitor (1) that I use in the lounge room for work Windows goes "I see what you're doing here" and all works fine, and when you do it in reverse it works as well (as was happening when I discovered the issue) but when I swapped the DVI cable over, live, it didn't see the monitor it was expecting on the DVI port and so refused to play - which doesn't sound very smart but that seems to be what was happening.

[rayc]

Under W7 I used VGA & DVI, (if that's the white one), successfully.